Behind the law, the trap

The popular adage already says it: made the law, made the trap.

Thomas Osborne
Thomas Osborne
15 November 2022 Tuesday 18:41
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Behind the law, the trap

The popular adage already says it: made the law, made the trap. On October 18, our colleague from Sociedad Javier Ricou revealed in La Vanguardia the existence of a case that questioned the suitability of the organic law of Comprehensive Guarantee of Sexual Freedom, which is popularly known as the law of only yes is yes . The rule was intended to punish sexual assaults more harshly, especially after the multiple rape suffered by a young woman in Pamplona by a group of five men, the popularized La Manada. The problem is that the law leaves a very dangerous gap by eliminating the penal distinction between abuse and assault, which can be used by judges to lower the sentences of abusers or rapists.

Three other convictions have now been added to the case noted by our newspaper that have had to be reviewed in favor of the aggressors due to the application of the new regulations and there are another dozen that are waiting to do so. The situation has caused alarm in the government chamber of the Provincial Court of Madrid, which will meet shortly to unify criteria, while the State Attorney General's Office is also going to draft a document to establish how the new rule should be applied. The chaos is so notorious that the Minister of Finance, María Jesús Montero, had no problem admitting that it is convenient to "study the legal text well" because lowering the penalties "was not the objective of the law."

The fact that the paternity of the controversial law of the only yes is yes belongs to the Ministry of Equality, in the hands of United We Can, can cause another conflict within the coalition government. The reaction of this ministry, through the mouth of the Government delegate against Gender Violence, Victoria Rosell, was to attack the judges: "It is not a problem of the law, it is a problem of voluntarist judicial interpretation against the advances of feminism.

Nobody denies Equality its good intentions, but in view of the results it is shown that sometimes there is an excess desire to legislate. Congress is a machine for making laws and decrees that do not always contribute to improving society. Sometimes they make it worse.